I think most would agree that it’s hard to keep one’s trust in God while suffering. 

Yet from our readings today, we hear this message: “Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God…he comes to save you. Streams will burst forth in the desert of your lives.”

So, the question has to be asked: How can we face up to trials and suffering in our lives? First thing is this: Don’t be afraid. “Let’s not be afraid of life or difficulties or suffering. They are a part of life.” Another important thing to remember is that every trial, no matter what its causes and characteristics are, is a trial of faith or of hope or of love. 

Every trial is a trial of faith. If I am a believer and I am going through a difficult time, I will unavoidably ask myself at some point, “What is God doing in all this? Does he really love me? Is he present in what I am living through?No matter what we are going through trust in God is put to the test. What is our response? We are invited to respond by deciding to have faith: Even though I can’t see, even though I don’t feel anything, even though appearances are against it, I decide to believe. God is faithful and he will not let me fall. He can draw something positive out of everything that is happening to me.

Every trial is a trial of hope. So the question here is: What am I counting on—relying on? Just like above, the answer we’re invited to give is: I’m counting on the Lord. I’m expecting Him to help me! On the deepest level I abandon myself into God’s hands, and it is in Him that I hope. 

Here’s another way of asking the question: What is my security based on? And the answer we are invited to give is: My ultimate security is God. I rely on Him alone.

Every trial is a trial of love. Perhaps our relationship with God is in crisis or perhaps our relationship with another person. Sometimes the difficulty really concerns our relationship with ourselves. For example: You love yourself when you were satisfied with yourself, when everything was going well, but now that you see your inner poverty and sinfulness you begin to not like yourself so much! You must accept yourself in all your poverty and limitations!

The conclusion of all this is that in every trial it is essential to ask this question: What act of faith am I being asked to make in this situation? What attitude of hope am I being called to live by? And what conversion leading to a truer and and purer love am I being called to undertake?

So how does all this effect our attitude? First, we must accept the suffering. Then we need to ask the right questions. Not, why is this happening to me, but, how am I being asked to live through this situation? 

And in doing this we want to avoid making accusations: toward God, life, others and even ourselves. We also have to agree to just take one step at a time and be patient to discover answers as they gradually appear. 

But all of this demands courage and great patience. 

Every trial can become a path of life, for Jesus has risen from the dead and is present in the midst of the storm somehow sowing seeds of new life in every situation. Even in those that seem most negative and most desperate, God is present.